BBTB2 Just Because Cards Gingerbread Man

It's the last challenge of the year at BBTB2.  This week our talented designer, Julie chose our challenge.  She asked us to use the Gingerbread Man from Just Because Cards.  Now remember if you don't have this cartridge there are other cartridges with Gingerbread Men that you can use.  I made a cookie jar shaped card using my Gypsy.  I love making shaped cards as you can probably tell if you follow my blog.  This cookie jar is on the From My Kitchen cartridge.  I used the Cookies Label from the same cartridge.  My base card is kraft cardstock and I welded two cookie jar shadows to create it.  My printed paper on the front of the card with all the cute cooking theme is Creative Imaginations. I cut another rolling pin and mitt from the paper so I could layer them.  My gingerbread man was cut at 2.75" and I used a white gel pen to add his frosting trim.  For the inside of the card I cut another jar shape and used the hide contour feature so I could use it to place my sentiment on.  My sentiment was done on my computer.

I want to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful, joyous and blessed Holiday Season with your families.  I hope you make wonderful memories.

My Pink Stamper Challenge

Here's something I don't do very often...a scrapbook page.  Even though my papercrafting habits started with scrapbooking, I enjoy making cards much more.  I suppose it's because by the time I started scrapbooking, my five children we're all grown and the grandchildren had started to come along.  I'm so far behind it seems like an impossible task to manage 38 years worth of pictures.  It occured to me not long ago that I really don't want to leave this earth with the task undone.  So I've vowed to get back to the scrapping in the new year.  It is my goal to have an album done for each of my children for Christmas next year as a gift for them.  This page however, is the first page of the family Christmas album that I'm starting. When I saw that Robyn had a challenge today over at My Pink Stamper I thought I'd play along.  I used the Winter Frolic cartridge to cut the Christmas bulbs.  I used the fit to length feature with the dial set at 11 1/2".  The title is also from the Winter Frolic cartridge and it's cut at 2".   

Paper Cutz Challenge #72

We're celebrating the New Year at Paper Cutz a little early with a challenge to use a banner.  I thought, what better to put on my banner than 2011 for a brand new year.  Hopefully, this card will help me recall what year it is.  For some unknown reason I always have a difficult time remembering the odd numbered years.  I think it's because all five of my children were born in even years.  At least that's what I tell myself.  I always go into my checkbook and add the year on several checks so I won't mess up.  LOL  I used the Cricut Celebration cartridge to make my banner.  The banner feature comes with the numbers cut into them so I thought it was the perfect choice.  I cut each one at 1.5".  I cut the shadow from a bright lime green cardstock and the numbers from black cardstock.  My background paper is Creative Imagination.  I cut the Happy New Year from Cricut's Celebrate With a Flourish. 

BBTB2 Joys of the Season Wreath

Our BBTB2 challenge this week was chosen by Julia.  She asked the DT to use the wreath from Joys of the Season.  It was a pretty simple cut and I just couldn't decide what to do until I was sorting through a bunch of my buttons and decided to use them to embellish.  I seem to have an overabundance of light green buttons.  About a week ago I decided to take my new Cricut Christmas Cards cartridge and cut out all the base shape cards so I would have a stack of ready made cards to use for Christmas.  This is the first one I've used, plenty more in the stack.  I also used the cartridge to cut the word Joy.

The Cutting Cafe To My Neighbor

Here's a quick little gift that I put together for a few neighbors.  I used The Cutting Cafe's HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO MY NEIGHBOR PRINTABLE STAMP SET.  I started out with a tin of these luscious mints from Trader Joe's.  I took a one inch strip of patterned paper and put it around the the tin.  I printed the stamp and added some holly and berries I cut from my Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge.  Tied on the gorgeous gingham ribbon and added the tag.  Easy peasy!  Took me about 10 minutes. 

Now I have to tell you, if you go to Trader Joe's now to look for these tins, they've discontinued them.  But they do have some luscious dark chocolate wedges with caramel in them and wedges of just plain dark chocolate.  The tins are the exact same size and will work equally as well.  If you just want the mints because they look yummy (and trust me they are) they sell them in 2 oz. bags now with no tin.  Guess they weren't as popular to anyone else as they were to me.  Glad I bought mine a month ago and put them away for little Christmas gifts.

Paper Cutz Challenge #71

This is my little Snowman Soup project for this week's Paper Cutz Challenge.  Mary asked us to use a snowman this week in our design.  This fantastic snowman image and poem are from The Cutting Cafe's Fun with Frosty the Snowman printable stamp set.  I simply printed it and cut it out.  I paper pieced the hat added a little glitter for the fur trim and a white pompom.  I colored his nose using a Copic marker.  The background paper is DCWV and I just lined the inside of the clear paint can with it.  I used a piece of the dp for the lid and added a sparkly silver and white snowflake.  Then I added assorted ribbon, lace and trims onto the handle.

Inside the can are the makings for a great cup of hot chocolate.  A package of Supreme hot cocoa mix, a few mini marshmallows and mini Hershey kisses that I placed in clear bags and added paper toppers to, and two mini candy canes.  Can't you just imagine what it will taste like?  This makes a cute little gift for co-workers, teachers or friends.

 Here's a close up view of the poem that you can get from The Cutting Cafe using this link.  This set comes with 31 images.

Thanks for stopping by today.  Don't forget to check out the rest of the snowman designs from the Design Team at Paper Cutz.

The Cutting Cafe Hangman

Are you looking for a stocking stuffer for a child or a quick gift?  I made this with a printable stamp set from The Cutting Cafe.  This Hangman Set comes with a sheet of four hangman cards with the alphabet printed at the bottom for crossing off and several sentiments.  I also used the Greeting Card folder as a holder for the game cards. I ran off six sheets of the cards (for 24 total) and cut them to 4.25" x 5".  The same size as a greeting card, perfect to fit into the Greeting Card folder. My dp is Paper Studio. I trimmed one of the hangman cards to use for the front of the folder and scattered the sentiments around, attaching the circle sentiment with a ribbon, jute cord and a button. 



Cricut Cardz Challenge #54

This is just a real simple card I made today for the Cricut Cardz Challenge.  This week's challenge is for a Circle Shaped Christmas card using no red or green.  I used the circle feature on the Christmas Cheer cartridge to cut this reindeer image from pink cardstock at 4".  I mounted it on a scalloped circle that I cut from the Mini Monograms cartridge using a piece of brown paper from the DCWV Amber stack at 5".  I cut my base card with Wild Card at 4".  I added a little bow and brown flower on her antler because this card is going to my baby granddaughter.  For her nose I took a white pearl and colored it with a Copic Light Prawn (R22) marker and I added a little doodling with a MS sepia colored marker.

Digital Tuesday Challenge with Cutting Cafe

I had a bit of spare time today so I decided to play along with the Digital Tuesday challenge.  The challenge is Baby, it's cold outside.  I used digital images from The Cutting Cafe.  Both the frame and the snowman are from the Fun with Frosty the Snowman printable stamp set.  I used my Copics to add a little color to Frosty's scarf and mittens.  I used a Nestie to cut a dark blue frame for my snowman to sit on and embossed it with my Cuttlebug snowflake embossing folder.  I brushed over the embossing with some cream colored chalk ink to highlight the embossing.  I embellished with a light blue snowflake printed ribbon and a couple of sparkly silver snowflakes. 

BBTB2 Winter Frolic Santa Envelope album

This week at BBTB2 our talented design sister, Joanna, chose the Santa from the Winter Frolic cartridge for us to work with.  I decided to make an envelope album that I've wanted to do since I picked up the kit while on vacation at a cute little scrapbook store I found in Virginia Beach. This kit is made by Little Yellow Bicycle and came with chipboard covers, four sheets patterned paper, five reversible envelopes, five double-sided inserts, washers, eyelets, string and binder rings.  To embellish the front cover I used the Santa from the Winter Frolic cartridge.  He's cut at 3.5".  I used my Gypsy to make the title using the Gypsy font and welding the letters together.  They are cut at 1".  I embellished the binder rings with assorted Christmas ribbons, cording and a jingle bell.

I know this is a terrible picture but I couldn't figure out how to photograph this album and get the whole thing. This shows the second and third pages and the journaling paper that goes inside the envelope with the tie closure.  The reindeer is cut from the new Jolly Holidays cartridge. Thanks for stopping by today and make sure you check out the rest of the DT creations at BBTB2.

The Cutting Cafe NIght Before Christmas

I don't know about everyone else but I send all handmade Christmas cards.  I make each one with that particular person in mind and don't usually mass produce. Using digital image sets from The Cutting Cafe makes the job a lot easier and quicker.  For this card I used the Night Before Christmas printable background set and the Christmas Mini Colored set.  I simply printed them out and used punches for each.  The spiral bound punch from EK Success and the circle punches are from Marvy.  I didn't want to distract from the beautiful holly image so I didn't add any sort of embellishment.  Quick, simple, easy and done in under five minutes.

Paper Cutz Challenge-Two Patterned Papers

The challenge at Paper Cutz this week is to use two patterned papers.  I used scraps from last year's DCWV paper stack.  This adorable little bird came from the new Cricut Lite Jolly Holidays cartridge.  This is my favorite Christmas cartridge so far.  The images are just so darn cute.  I haven't been able to put it down since I brought it home from Walmart on Black Friday.  I was pretty excited to be the 4th person at the Cricut pallet on Black Friday.  I arrived around 11:00pm.  At 12:00am when the sale started and the pallet was opened I grabbed the cartridges I wanted and lucky for me the checkout lanes were directly across from the pallet.  I checked out with my purchases at 12:01am.  It doesn't get much better than that.  I cut my little guy at 3" and embossed the black layer with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.  I used Fun Flock on the "fur" trim and a white pompom for the tip of the hat.  My sentiment is computer generated.  My base card is a 5" square cut from Cricut's Christmas Card cartridge. 

Christmas Countdown w/ Sour Cream Containers

I made this Christmas countdown for my little friend Tanner, who's six years old.  He can take off one container each night before he goes to bed and find a treat inside. I used scraps of leftover Christmas papers and my Fiskars edge crimper to make the sour cream containers.  Each container uses a piece of paper that is 4 x 6".  Here is a little tutorial to help you see how they're made.

Place a piece of double-sided on the 4" edge and bring opposite edge around to form a tube.

Add a piece of double sided tape to inside just large enough to stick it together when flattened.  Then place the edge into the crimper and crimp edge.  Place treat into the container and then add a piece of tape so that the other edge can be flattened and crimped.

I used digital stamps from The Cutting Cafe's Christmas Daily 2 set for each day's label and punched them out with a circle punch.  I punched a hole in each number and container then tied them together with red cord.

I used a jingle bell garland and tied each container to it.  I purchased two garlands from the Dollar Tree store and attached two together so that there was a jingle bell between each container.  This required a little cutting and tying  back together for the correct amount of bells.  This also allowed me to have a loop at each end for attaching the garland to a fireplace.  For photo purposes I just hung it from my Christmas stocking hangers on the mantle. 

Using this premade garland made this project so easy to complete. The funny thing is, I just wanted some jingle bells to attach to each container. When I arrived home with what I thought were individual jingle bells, it turned out to be a garland. So I used it to my advantage by just attaching the containers to it. Easy peasy! This project took me about two hours from start to finish. I used pieces of candy, stickers, erasers and some of those little capsules that you can put it water and when they dissolve you have a small sponge shape.



The Cutting Cafe Camera Set

These new sets from The Cutting Cafe couldn't have come out at a better time for me.  I made this project using the CAMERA  SHAPED PHOTO HOLDER TEMPLATE, the PHOTO BACKGROUND PRINTABLE STAMP SET and the CHRISTMAS MINI COLORED SET.  Just yesterday we took a little road trip with our four year old granddaughter, Payton.  We took her to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth, Michigan.  You have never seen such a fantastic Christmas store in your life.  It was Payton's first trip there and she was enchanted.  (Though she pooped out quicker than we thought she would).  I made this photo holder to give her the pictures we took while we were there.  The pictures will be placed in her Christmas Daily album I made for her.  As the name implies, this is a holder for photos that is shaped like a camera.  First I printed the Photo Background onto white cardstock then cut out the Camera Shaped Photo Holder.  Using a scrap of Christmas paper I cut a decorative edge to place on the front of the holder and the piece to hold the photos inside.  The circular Holiday Photos sentiment was punched out with a two inch punch and placed atop the black circle.  The Christmas tree was cut from the Christmas Mini Colored set as well as the punched Merry Christmas circular sentiment. 

The date and place tag is part of the set and I just cut it and placed it on the inside for a reminder of the date the photos were taken.  Isn't Payton adorable standing next to that life size snowman?  She got to pick out an ornament to take home and put on her Christmas tree along with one for her baby sister.  This is a long-standing tradition in our family...getting an ornament from Bronner's.  When the first of our five children was born we went to Bronner's and bought her first Christmas ornament.  Every year thereafter, for each of our five kids, we bought them a Christmas ornament.  It went on the tree that year and then went into a box with their name on it.  Then when they married or moved away from home they took their box of ornaments for their own Christmas trees.  Now we carry that tradition on to our grandchildren.  They always know they will get an ornament as part of their Christmas presents.

Mojo Monday sketch challenge

Finally, I managed a productive day in my design studio.  It has been a good long time since I've actually made a card for a challenge.  Between traveling for the month of October, house guests here since the day after we returned and all my design teams' responsibilities I haven't accomplished anything extra.  But today I got to spend the whole day creating.  I even got to go to massage therapy this morning.  I think I undid all my massage therapist's work though, hunched over the work table all day.  I made this card following the sketch from Mojo Monday.  I just love circular cards and couldn't resist.  My stack of Christmas cards has grown by leaps and bounds today.  I managed to get six cards made and two major projects finished, which I'll share in the next few days.  I used Cutting Cafe digital sets to complete this card.  The wonderful Night Before Christmas background paper and the Not a Creature was Stirring made completing this card a cinch.  I also used my Cricut Wild Card cartridge for my base card, Mini Monograms cartridge for the circle and scalloped circles and My Community for the little mouse.

BBTB2 Winter Frolic Deck the Halls

Good morning everyone.  It was my turn to pick the challenge this week at BBTB2.  Since we are heading into December and the holiday season I had to make this a Christmas challenge.  I chose the new Winter Frolic cartridge and asked the Design Team to use either of the ornament cuts from pages 64 or 65 and include the sentiment Deck the Halls from page 65.  I decided to make a shaped card using my Gypsy.  I used the shadow cuts from the sentiment and welded the shadow from the ornament so it would be hanging from the letter T of the sentiment.  I made my base card from black cardstock and cut it at 5.75.  Then I cut the shadow again slightly smaller from red cardstock.  I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper for my top layer and cut it twice for more dimension.  Then I added some bling with red rhinestones, glittered star brads and red glitter.  Hope you can play along with our challenge. Don't forget you can use any ornament cut and any font cut from any cartridge for the Deck the Halls sentiment but you must have both elements on your card.  I'm really excited because this will be my first opportunity to choose the weekly winner.  I can't wait to see your designs.

Paper Cutz Anything Goes

Happy Day after Thanksgiving.  At Paper Cutz today it's Anything Goes.  This is the card I made for my granddaughter Payton's birthday on Saturday.  I used my Cricut to cut the crown from the Once Upon A Princess cartridge.  The number 4 and the sentiment Happy Birthday Princess are from The Cutting Cafe.

Speaking of The Cutting Cafe, Regina is having a great Black Friday sale it's buy one get one free on her digital stamp sets. Click on the link and hurry on over for this one day sale. 

Cricut Cardz Challenge #52

I'm very excited for this week's challenge at Cricut Cardz Challenge.  This is my first week as the Design Coordinator for Cricut Cardz Challenge Design Team #1.  I'm so happy to be working with Mary to help her on her fantastic blog.  I will be setting the challenges now for Design Team #1 and helping Mary in any other way I can.  For my first challenge I've chosen a Christmas theme but only using words cut from your Cricut and no image.  I used the Winter Woodlands cartridge and my Gypsy to design this card.  I welded two of the greetings shadow features together to form the base of my card and cut it from green cardstock at 5.75" for the width.  At this size it fits on a piece of 12 x 12" cardstock.  Season's Greetings is cut at 4.72" width to fit on the base.  I cut it twice from black cardstock and then from a DCWV Christmas stack (last year's) so I could offset for a shadow effect.  The holly is cut with the layer feature on using a scrap I had.  I used some glitter on the berries for a little sparkle.  I can say I am ahead of last year's handmade Christmas card production, but just barely.  It's been so hard to get anything done with my son still home on leave from the Marine's with his wife.  But, we've had a fantastic time being with them and that's much more important.  Kyle will have left for his new duty station in Chantilly, VA by the time this posts.  Nicole will be staying behind with their two kitties until their new house is ready for them on December 1.  Tonight my husband's brother will be arriving to spend Thanksgiving with us.  I have no clue where I'm going to put them because our one guest bedroom is already occupied.  I suppose I should figure that out real soon now.  I'll probably send my husband to the store to get an air mattress we can throw on the floor in the family room.  It's going to be a wild few days.  I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.  For those of you heading out for shopping on Friday...May the force be with you!!!

Christmas Daily Days 21-25

Here's the last installment of my Christmas Daily album.  I gave the album to my granddaughter Payton at her birthday party yesterday.  She is only four and I wasn't sure if she would get it or not.  Not too long ago she was over and wanted to go into my studio.  I told her we couldn't go in that day because I was working on a big project (this album) and had it layed out all over.  She asked what I was working on and I told her it was a project for her.  So yesterday I reminded her of that day and told her this was the project.  We sat down on the floor and I went through all the pages with her.  She was completely mesmorized while I explained it to her.  I told her she had to take very good care of it and couldn't play with it so it would be around when she got to be a big girl.  She said "Okay Nana".  Even after this conversation I wasn't sure if she got it.  But then my daughter called me today.  She told me that she was looking at it with Payton and that Payton told her what every single page was for almost exactly as I had told it to her.  She is very excited to get started on it when it gets to be "cember, in a few days".  Well, wonders never cease, maybe she did get it.

It was a big tradition in our house on Christmas Eve for the kids to all get to open one present.  It was always a pair of pajamas.  Then we would gather them around in their new jammies and my husband would read the Night Before Christmas to them and they would toddle off to bed.  We had the same routine from my oldest daughter's first Christmas to the Christmas before my youngest son graduated high school.  That was from 1974 until 2004, thirty years.  Gosh, that's a long time. 

When it was Payton's first Christmas we bought her the book 'Twas the Night Before Christmas so my daughter could begin the tradition with her children.  This year we went to Hallmark and bought the recordable version so my husband could read it for them.  We haven't given it to her yet, but will soon.

When I did the Sugar Plums page I knew I had to make the bed with a pink pillow and purple blanket.  Those are Payton's favorite colors and what her room is done in.  I'm not sure if my daughter will be able to get a picture of her sleeping on Christmas Eve.  You've never seen a kid who sleeps less.  I'm glad I'm not going to be at her house trying to get her to go to sleep.

I'm really proud of myself for finishing this album.  I have to admit, I would rather make cards than scrapbook.  This did give me the inspiration to get busy on some of my old pictures.  I'm hoping to finish albums for each of my five children and give them to each of them next Christmas.  Plus I will try to get one more album done for my son.  A Marine scrapbook.   Thanks so much for following along with my Christmas Daily album.  I hope I've inspired someone to give it a go.  It really was so easy using Regina's digital stamp sets from The Cutting Cafe.  I used both her December Daily set from last year and this year's December Daily 2.

Project Tuesday Reindeer Bags

Every year I try to make up some small Holiday gifts to have on hand.  You never know when you might need them. I was really excited when I saw this week's Project Tuesday challenge because I knew it would be perfect for my little gifts.  I bought these hand gels from Bath and Body Works a couple weeks ago when they were on sale.  They are so cute with those reindeer on them I knew I could make up something with a reindeer using my Cricut.  I used the Doodlcharms cartridge for my reindeer and they're cut at 2".  I used darkbrown cardstock for the base layer, kraft cardstock for the face and red cardstock for the noses and shadows.  I added some glitter to the noses.  The stamp is from Inkadinkado. Here is the link for the bag directions.

Christmas Daily Days 17-20

This installment of my Christmas Daily album includes days 17 -20.  All the digital elements are from The Cutting Cafe, either December Daily or December Daily 2.  Just click on the set for the link to The Cutting Cafe.  I made pages 17 and 18 a little more interactive for my 4 year old granddaughter Payton.  I included an easy to put together foam Christmas ornament I purchased at JoAnn's for $1.  For day 18 I included a packet of hot chocolate.

If you aren't from the east side of the state of Michigan you probably have no idea what the significance of day 19 is.  Here in this area we have the most fantastic Christmas store ever.  They are open year round and you have never seen so much Christmas stuff in your life.  They do sell online so if you are looking for an ornament with a particular theme in mind, check out Bronners.  My husband and I started a tradition for our children as each of them were born.  Every year we went to Bronners and picked out an ornament for them.  It went on the tree that year and then went into a box with their name on it.  When they grew up and got their first home they had a box of ornaments for their tree.  Now we do the same thing for our grandchildren.  This year, for the first time ever, we are going to take a grandchild with us (Payton) and let her pick out her own ornament.  It will be a day just for us to spend with her.  It is about a two hour drive to get there.  We will shop through the store and let her find the perfect ornament then we will go out for lunch.  Days 18 and 19 will document this little trip.

I can't wait to see what Payton will pick out.  Whatever theme it is, I have the feeling it will be a pink ornament.  Preferably, pink and purple, her two favorite colors.  I think she will pick something with a Disney Princess on it.  She's at that princess age.

Thanks for stopping by.  I will be posting the final installment of my Christmas Daily album Monday or Tuesday. 

Paper Cutz Christmas with Lots of Bling

This week at Paper Cutz Mary asked the DT to make a Christmas card with lots of bling.  I made a shaped ornament card using my Gypsy and the Joys of the Season cartridge.  I used red cardstock for my base card.   The top layer design paper is from TPC Studio called Deck the Halls Holly Jolly Stripe.  As you can see it has stripes of green glitter running through it.  For the layers of the card I used a shiny gold cardstock from The Paper Company.  I added glittery red brads from Creative Imaginations.  The bow is ribbon from Offray and the cord is Holiday Time that I got at Walmart the day after Christmas.  Thanks for stopping by today and make sure you check out the great designs from the rest of the design team.  You can find their links on the Paper Cutz blog.

The Cutting Cafe Christmas Mini Colored Set/Christmas Frames

Honest to goodness, it doesn't get any easier to whip up a Christmas card than this.  Print, cut and assemble.  If you haven't been to The Cutting Cafe recently and need to get started or finish up your handmade Christmas cards Regina has tons of new digital stamp sets.  I literally, made this card in 10 minutes.  I used two different sets to put this card together, the Christmas Frames set and the Christmas Mini Colored Set.  The frames set comes with frames for both 4.25 x 5.5" cards and 4 x 6" cards.  The Christmas Mini Colored set comes with 46 images (yes, you read that correctly 46) including the December 25th background and the circular sentiment on this card.  Some quickly cut mats to back the images, a little ribbon, cording and stick on pearls for embellishment and I was done.

Christmas Daily Days 13-16

Time for another installment of my Christmas Daily album that I made for my granddaughters Paige and Payton.. Today I have pages 13-16. As with all previous pages I used digital stamps from The Cutting Cafe. All pages used either last year's December Daily set or this year's December Daily 2 set. Just click on the set to take you directly to the links. The patterned paper around this page is a negative shape leftover from my Baking Cookies page I did previously.  Quick and easy.  The shape was cut using my Cricut Imagine Best Friends cartridge. All my scalloped circles were cut with my Mini Monograms cartridge.

I added a premade present to the center of the day 14 stamp and DCWV paper from a Christmas stack I got last year. Using a paper with a common feature to the stamp makes each page easy to put together.

My Mistletoe on page 15 came from the new seasonal Cricut cartridge Christmas Cards.  I will purchase a piece of real mistletoe so that my daughter can hang it up in their house for a picture.  Can't you just imagine my granddaughter standing under the mistletoe giving Daddy a kiss?  Too cute, huh?

 Anyone who knows Payton knows she's very capable of being naughty and pouting when she gets in trouble.  Just like most 4 year olds, I imagine.  The other day her daddy told her she could have a treat if her dinner was all gone.  My daughter was off to work so daddy was home with the kids alone.  He went to check on the baby and came back to find Payton's dinner all gone and her plate in the sink.  Suspicious because she's not a very good eater he checked the garbage can.  Sure enough, there was Payton's dinner.  She went to bed early for that, without a treat.  LOL

Thanks for stopping by today and make sure to come back later in the week to see pages 17-20.  Payton's 4th birthday party is Saturday and that's when I plan on giving it to her.  I can't wait.  I hope she'll have fun and be able to look back at it for many years.  In fact, I hope it's still around when she has her own children.

Give Thanks

For this week's BBTB2 challenge the incredibly talented Donna asked us to use the phrase Give Thanks from the new Thanksgiving cartridge.  I don't have this cartridge but I did have the Give Thanks phrase on my Designer's Calendar cartridge, so that's what I used.  I decided to make a little home decor project to sit on my fireplace mantle.  I was real happy with how this turned out.  I used cardboard from empty cereal boxes to make this a little more sturdy.  Starting from my back layer I used Mini Monograms to cut a scalloped square at 8.5" from both black cardstock and the cardboard and adhered them together.  Then I added a layer of cream cardstock to place the sentiment on.  Over that I placed a brown frame I cut from kraft cardstock and the cardboard at 7.5" using Don Juan.  I used Doodlecharms for the leaves and acorns cutting two of each leaf for layering.  Then using two thicknesses (1/8" and 1/16") of Pop Dots I began placing the elements layering each leaf a little higher than the last ending with the acorns on two of the thickest Pop Dots.  My sentiment is cut at 3.75" from black and a burnt orange cardstock then I offset the black cardstock to give a shadowed effect.

Looking at this reminds me of all the bountiful things I have to be thankful for.  It's a wonderful time of year for reflections of all the blessings I have been given, most of all a wonderful family.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can join our challenge at BBTB2 this week.  Don't forget if you don't have the Thanksgiving cartridge you can use any other cartridge with Thanks on it.